Google, Facebook and Microsoft are aggressively recruiting college students in hopes of landing them before they graduate, says Gayle Laakmann McDowell, a former Google software engineer and author of The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Any Top Tech Company.

The jump in tech hires highlights what some economists see as a bounce-back in the $805 billion U.S. tech industry that could eventually make a dent in the national unemployment rate of 8.8%. “The majority of the lost jobs in California were in construction and manufacturing, so gains in tech may help,” says Doug Henton, CEO of market researcher Collaborative Economics. “The one sector where there is some hope is in construction in clean tech.”